On my Fujifilm Finepix S1500, I'm trying to shoot in manual mode, and trying to shoot with an aperture of 8, but it won't let me go past 6.4 UNLESS I zoom in completely and I can't do that for this shot. Any ideas?

I'm really just practicing manual mode. Maybe I shouldn't used that wording. lol. I was told Manual is the best mode for Noobs and to practice it a lot. What I did was take a picture of my dog in manual mode. It came out black. Completely. You couldn't even see it. The Shutter speed was at 2000 and the aperture was at 5.6. I thought that maybe a Higher setting might help the black to let in more light. I noticed that it would only go up to 6.4 when not at the highest zoom possible.

I'm really just practicing manual mode. Maybe I shouldn't used that wording. lol. I was told Manual is the best mode for Noobs and to practice it a lot. What I did was take a picture of my dog in manual mode. It came out black. Completely. You couldn't even see it. The Shutter speed was at 2000 and the aperture was at 5.6. I thought that maybe a Higher setting might help the black to let in more light. I noticed that it would only go up to 6.4 when not at the highest zoom possible.

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If it came out black, slow down your shutter speed or open the aperture (smaller number). Maybe even a little of both.

Heh you're going the wrong way - apertures work backwards (kind of) the bigger the number the smaller the hole in the lens and thus the less light that gets through; whilst the smaller the number the larger the hole and thus the more light that gets through.

Also review your camera manual since there should be a diagram which shows you were and how to read the camera meter - you have to read the meter as you set the settings that way you can see how the resulting shot will be exposed with hte settings you have. Otherwise you are shooting totally blind (and only a lot of experience lets you shoot without taking a meter reading)

slower shutter speed - result is more chance of blur though 1/100sec should be ok for what you describe - if the dog is moving 1/400ish (very rough numbers)
wider aperture - limited of course and the more you open the aperture the less depth you get to the shot - though on a camera like yours it won't be as dramatic as on a dslr
high ISO - higher means more noise on the shot and that means less finer details.

After that you are right you have to boost the local lighting - flash - reflectors and shooting in good lighting are what you need then